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News Happening Now
2 U.S. Sailors Shot to Death in Bahrain
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 22, 2007
Filed at 5:30 a.m. ET
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Two U.S. Navy sailors were killed and a third was critically wounded early Monday in a shooting incident on a U.S. military base in Bahrain, the U.S. Navy said.
The incident was not terror related and was under investigation, a Navy official said on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to discuss the case with the media. No other details were immediately available.
The shootings took place in the barracks on the U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain base around 5 a.m. local time, the Navy said in a statement. It wasn’t immediately clear what triggered the shootings.
USA
Winds drive Southland wildfires
By Bettina Boxall, Scott Glover and Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 23, 2007
Thousands of Southern California homes could be at risk in coming days as powerful Santa Ana winds continue to stoke wildfires, fire officials said. Blazes on Sunday scorched thousands of acres from the Mexican border to Santa Barbara County, destroyed at least 39 homes and other buildings and killed at least one person.
Some of the worst devastation has been in and around Malibu, where the losses included two beloved landmarks; in San Diego, where at least one person died and 14 were injured; and in the communities of Agua Dulce and Canyon Country, midway between Santa Clarita and Palmdale. At least 25 buildings there were destroyed and 3,800 remained threatened by a rapidly moving blaze driven by winds gusting to 80 mph. At least four people were reported injured, one severely.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Looks Beyond Current Wars
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 – The new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff plans to press Congress and the public to sustain the current high levels of military spending – even after the Iraq war – arguing for money to repair and replace worn-out weapons and to restore American ground forces he described as “breakable,” though not yet broken.
The new chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, expressed deep concerns that the long counterinsurgency missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have so consumed the military that the Army and Marine Corps may be unprepared for a high-intensity war against a major adversary.
Editorial
Think of America’s greatest historical shames. Most have involved the singling out of groups of people for abuse. Name a distinguishing feature – skin color, religion, nationality, language – and it’s likely that people here have suffered unjustly for it, either through the freelance hatred of citizens or as a matter of official government policy.
We are heading down this road again. The country needs to have a working immigration policy, one that corresponds to economic realities and is based on good sense and fairness. But it doesn’t. It has federal inertia and a rising immigrant tide, and a national mood of frustration and anxiety that is slipping, as it has so many times before, into hatred and fear. Hostility for illegal immigrants falls disproportionately on an entire population of people, documented or not, who speak Spanish and are working-class or poor. By blinding the country to solutions, it has harmed us all.
Thompson, Giuliani spar over conservative records
WASHINGTON — Eight presidential hopefuls clashed sharply over conservative purity Sunday night in the most contentious Republican debate of the 2008 race for the White House.
Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee set the tone by saying rival Rudolph W. Giuliani believes in federal funding for abortion and “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants.“He’s for gun control,” Thompson said of the former New York mayor. “He supported Mario Cuomo, a liberal Democrat, against a Republican who was running for governor, then opposed the [Republican] governor’s tax cuts.”
Middle East
Turkey bombards northern Iraq after ambush
Michael Howard in Saleheddin
Monday October 22, 2007
The prospect of a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq in pursuit of fighters of the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) drew closer yesterday after another round of clashes in the mountainous frontier region that left at least 12 Turkish soldiers and 23 PKK guerillas dead, and saw a number of Turkish troops captured by the rebel group.
The Turkish army stepped up its bombardment of the Iraqi side of the border after the rebels ambushed a military unit inside Turkey, hitting 11 different areas close to towns and villages, Kurdish officials said. In a separate incident in south-eastern Turkey, one person died and 17 were injured when their minibus was hit by a roadside bomb allegedly placed by the PKK.
With tension rising, Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, who heads one of the country’s two main Kurdish parties, expressed condolences to the families of the dead Turkish soldiers and demanded that the PKK disarm and commit itself to peaceful politics, or else get out of Iraq.
Abbas resists US pressure to name Dahlan his deputy
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
The Bush administration is exerting heavy pressure on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to appoint senior Fatah figure Muhammad Dahlan as his deputy, sources in Ramallah said Sunday.
According to the sources, Abbas has rejected the US demand, triggering a crisis with Washington. They said tensions between Abbas and Dahlan had escalated over the past few weeks after the latter criticized the PA president’s performance.
Sources close to Abbas told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masriyoon that Dahlan had been inciting Fatah cadres in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against Abbas.
Asia
China workshop blaze ‘kills 34’
A fire at an illegal shoe factory in eastern China has left 34 people dead, according to state media.
A further 21 people needed hospital treatment after being hurt in the blaze in the city of Putian, Fujian province, on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.
India, Dow Chemical may settle Bhopal gas disaster claims: report
NEW DELHI (AFP) – India could reach an out-of-court settlement with US giant Dow Chemical to clean up the Bhopal gas disaster site and end liability claims after more than two decades, a report said Monday.
India’s law ministry said the move would clear “legal hurdles” to future Dow Chemical investments in India by setting up a fund to clean up thousands of tonnes of contaminated soil along with other measures to resolve long-running lawsuits linked to the disaster, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
The government was prompted by Indian industrial conglomerate the Tata Group to pursue a settlement, and Dow Chemical’s chief executive wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this year on the issue, the newspaper said.
The Telegraph is published in Calcutta India
– Police not informed even after 8 days
KHELEN THOKCHOM
Imphal, Oct. 20: Three engineers of the Manipur public health engineering (PHE) department were taken hostage by the Kuki Revolutionary Army eight days ago, but their whereabouts still remain unknown.
The Kuki outfit has allegedly demanded Rs 1 crore from the PHE as ransom for their safe release. The PHE has not formally approached police as they fear for the officials’ safety.
Executive engineer Laishram Ibomcha Singh, assistant engineer Okram Meino Singh and section officer Ningombam Upendro were taken hostage by the militants, their colleagues said today.
The three engineers, posted at the PHE’s Imphal East division, were visiting Nongren area of the district on October 12 to inspect projects when the militants abducted them, sources said.
Europe
Asylum-seekers ‘are left to starve’ in Britain
Published: 22 October 2007
Thousands of people are forced to spend years living in abject poverty on the streets of Britain’s cities after fleeing persecution in their own countries, an independent asylum inquiry has heard. The destitute have no access to help from the state as they have not been granted asylum, yet they prefer to stay in Britain rather than return home because they fear of being tortured or killed.
Senior lawyers, doctors and immigration officials even claim such destitution is, in effect, now being used by the Government as policy, in an attempt to force desperate people out of the country.
There are at least 280,000 people living in poverty in Britain after having their leave to remain refused. Some of them are appealing those decisions. Some just go completely underground, taking their chances on the streets of the UK with no money or shelter.
‘Racist’ campaign pays off in Swiss poll
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 22 October 2007
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party won its best-ever showing in general elections yesterday after a virulent anti-foreigner campaign that was widely denounced as racist, but failed to obtain the landslide victory it had been hoping for.
The SVP, led by the controversial billionaire and Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocher secured almost 29 per cent of the vote and an extra six seats in parliament, the first exit polls suggested last night.
Mr Blocher’s campaign was dominated by the single issue of immigration. His party’s election posters featured three white sheep standing on a red and white Swiss national flag kicking a black sheep out of the country. Alongside ran the slogan “more security!”
Africa
Don’t go near the baobab at Nigerian heritage site
By Estelle Shirbon Mon Oct 22, 12:33 AM ET
SUKUR, Nigeria (Reuters) – Visitors to Sukur are warned not to approach a certain ancient baobab tree because, villagers say, it turns people into hermaphrodites.It is an atmospheric introduction to this Nigerian World Heritage Site for the trickle of outsiders who come, but villagers who trek up and down from the remote hillside community are ready for an injection of modernity.
A road would be a start.
As the outside world starts to take a greater interest in the hilltop outpost, which earned its World Heritage label from UNESCO in 1999, the people there would also like to see more of the outside world.
3 comments
frightening! I wonder how the Little Prince managed? He had to dig out those baobabs before they took over his planet! How insidious! I bet they declare war on their “terrorist” attacks! But who would go near them????? Frightening! What can we do to stop them? Maybe a few brave souls will sacrifice themselves for the safety and security of sex! It is our only hope- to out breed the baobabs before they turn everyone into hermaphrodites.
Of course, maybe that isn’t so bad actually.
… editorial on immigration. What’s happening now is a national disgrace (among all the other national disgraces – I know, it’s hard to keep track).
Yay for Spitzer.
you’d almost think the guerrillas want the Turks to invade.
Makes you wonder what the PKK’s real agenda is here, and why Blackwater continues to provide weapons and support.
Cheney? (cough, cough).